Chapter 17

The hour of the date had come, along with many protests from Ikkaku, although every time she saw Iba he looked perfectly fine physically. He smiled nervously at her, though, but she chalked that up to Iba being nervous about their date and not the potential ass kicking that might come his way if he put even one toe out of line. She was certain one of the only reasons why Ikkaku hadn't beaten the crap out of Iba was because he knew Buffy would kick his ass even harder if she ever found out. Which wouldn't be too difficult, as Yumichika tells her almost everything.

"Are you nervous?" Rangiku asked as Buffy stood in front of a mirror, putting the last finishing touches on her hair. She couldn't do anything about her clothing – students weren't allowed to have civilian clothing – but that didn't mean her hair and make up couldn't be outstanding. She and Rangiku had been experimenting with hairstyles and make up so it was easy for Buffy to make sure she looked perfect.

"Not really," Buffy replied with a shrug, patting her hair down. "It's Iba. It's not like we haven't hung out alone before."

"But it's a date," Rangiku said, waggling her eyebrows. "There's going to be, like, expectations."

"What kind of girl do you think I am?" Buffy asked, turning to Rangiku and arching an eyebrow at her. "'Cause let me tell you, I'm not that kind of girl."

"I know you're not, and I'm pretty sure he knows you're not, but a date means that your friendship is going up to the next level," Rangiku replied. "Are you gonna kiss him?"

"Not like it's any of your business, but I don't know," Buffy replied. "I don't know if Iba will survive if Ikkaku found out we made with the smoochies."

"He really needs to get his jealousy into check. When are you going to kick his ass to make him see your point?" Rangiku asked.

"Violence isn't always the answer," Buffy replied before turning to face Rangiku. "How do I look?"

"When it comes to bald buttheads like him, violence is the only response he seems to understand," Rangiku retorted with a sniff. "And you look fabulous, although I can't wait until we can wear pretty clothes."

"You're telling me," Buffy agreed as there was a knock on the door. Buffy rolled her eyes; Iba was going to get her in trouble with the dorm supervisor if he and the other boys didn't stop coming up to her room. Like that would actually stop them, Buffy thought with a rueful smile as she crossed the room and pulled open the door. The smile fell when she saw, not Iba as she had expected, but Ikkaku standing in the hallway, a scowl on his face. "What the hell do you want? I really don't have the time for this."

"So you're really going through with this?" Ikkaku asked.

"Yes, I'm really going through with this, and nothing you can say or do will change my mind," Buffy retorted. She turned to Rangiku. "I'll see you later."

"I want all of the juicy details!" Rangiku shot back as Buffy left, resisting the urge to drag Ikkaku out by his ear, if just barely.

"You're just doing this to make me jealous," Ikkaku said with snort as they made their way through the girl's dormitory building.

"Trust me, I don't have to do anything to bring out that monster possessing you," Buffy retorted, exiting the building with Ikkaku on tow. "Now make with the leaving before I have to make with the ass kicking."

Ikkaku looked like he was about to object, but one look at Buffy's face had him clamping his mouth shut quickly. He narrowed his eyes at her, and she glared right back, as someone approached them. Iba jogged up to his friends, looking from one to the other.

"Whatcha doin' here, Ikkaku?" he asked suspiciously. Buffy was sure Iba was narrowing his eyes at the bald man, but she couldn't be sure because of the ever-present sunglasses.

"Trying to convince me to cancel our date," Buffy retorted for Ikkaku, turning her attention to Iba. "Which, by the way, didn't work. Come on, let's get out of here. I'm sure he can make it home on his own."

"Yeah, sure," Iba said, offering his arm to Buffy while looking at Ikkaku warily. She took the arm, shot one last poisonous glare at Ikkaku and allowed herself to be led away.

"So, what's the plan for tonight?" Buffy asked when they were out of earshot.

"Picnic," Iba replied with a grin, holding up a picnic basket that Buffy hadn't noticed before. "I thought we'd go sit under the cherry trees for a bit before going for a walk."

"Awww, you're a closet romantic," Buffy said with a grin, nudging him a little as they walked.

"Don't spread it around," Iba said, although he was smiling slightly. Buffy was sure that if he had his sunglasses off he would be looking around shiftily. She vowed to herself that she would get his sunglasses off at least once, even if it was one of the last things she did.

"Don't worry, your secret's safe with me," Buffy whispered, nudging him again. Iba smiled slightly at Buffy, and the walk to the cherry trees was done in a comfortable silence.

"Come on, this looks like a good spot," Iba said as he extracted his arm from Buffy's grasp and went about setting up the blanket for the picnic.

"do you need any help with that?" Buffy asked, more than willing to help.

"Nah, I got it. You just stand there and look pretty," Iba replied with a sly grin. Buffy just rolled her eyes and waiting until the picnic was set up. It wasn't a large spread; rice, buns, cakes and some sake.

"Sorry it's not more. I couldn't steal very much from the kitchens," Iba said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck as they sat down.

"It's fine. This looks great," Buffy replied with a warm smile, giggling when Iba blushed slightly.

"Thank you," Iba said and they both started serving themselves.

"So, what's your deal?" Buffy asked after taking a bite out of one of the buns. "I mean, you know why I'm here, but you've been making with the silent treatment. So spill."

"You're not allowed to tell anyone, and if anyone else asks me about it I'm going to vehemently deny it," Iba replied.

"Okay, fair enough," Buffy said. "Make with the spillage already."

"I'm doin' this to make my mama proud," Iba replied. "She's kinda disappointed in some of the stuff I've doen and this is my way of trying to make it up to her."

"Why were you embarrassed about that?" Buffy asked, curious.

"Didn't want anyone to think I was a sissy," Iba replied, shifting uncomfortably in his spot. "What about you? Why are you here? Because I'm not buying the 'my bother wanted to come and I tagged along' line."

"Well, that's how it started," Buffy said, and Iba snorted. "What? It is! But then I thought I could do some good around here. 'Cause, you know, I was all with the protecty-ness in my last life. Thought I'd be legit about it this time around."

"Does this have anything to do with the Slayer?" Iba asked, curious. It was Buffy's turn to be uncomfortable.

"Yeah, a bit," Buffy replied. "How do you know about that?"

"Not much, 'cept that it's been thrown around since that incident," Iba replied. They never referred to Kurotsuchi by name if they could help it, and they called Buffy's kidnapping "that incident" or "the incident", and tried to ignore it for the most part.

"Yeah, that's what I was when I was alive," Buffy said. "I got kind of upgraded to keep the world safe and I guess Kurotsuchi wanted to see if I kept any of them when I came here."

"And how the hell did he find out about this?" Iba asked.

"He saw my entrance exam and decided to start following me around. He overheard me and Yumichika talking about it," Buffy replied. "Can we, like, not talk about this anymore? 'Cause that guy really gives me a wiggins and date time is definitely not wiggins time."

"What do you want to talk about, then?" Iba asked.

"As long as we don't talk about my failure in Kido class, I don't care," Buffy replied with a shake of her head.

"Why not?" Iba asked. "It's been ages since you've blown yourself up. Besides, you look kinda cute all covered in soot."

"Cute? Cute?" Buffy exclaimed. "I'll show you cute!"

She tackled him and together they rolled around on the grass, laughing, thankfully away from the food. They rolled to a stop, Iba on top. Buffy reached up and took off Iba's sunglasses, noting to herself that they were green, and very pretty.

"You have nice eyes," Buffy commented after they had stared at each other for a few moments. Iba seemed to consider something before he leaned down and planted a soft kiss on Buffy's lips. He pulled back and they stared at each other again. Iba blinked. Buffy met that blink and raised another blink. This wasn't good. The kiss was nice, she supposed, but there was no spark, nothing. She dreaded telling Iba that, but he beat her to it.

"Don't take this the wrong way, Buff, because you're a great girl and everything," he began, but Buffy cut him off before he could finish.

"No spark?" Buffy asked.

"No spark," Iba confirmed as he got up off of Buffy and offered her a hand to help her up. "Well, at least there's one good thing to come out of this."

"Oh yeah, what's that?" Buffy asked once she was on her feet and brushing the dirt off of her behind.

"Ikkaku's not going to want to kick my ass anymore," Iba replied with a grin as he moved to clean up the picnic.

"Oh, he's probably still going to want to kick your ass," Buffy said, helping him tidy up. "He's like a kid with a shiny toy and he really doesn't like to share."

"Well, he has one less reason to kick my ass, then," Iba retorted. "At least I'm not going to have him glaring at me all the time."

"Lucky you," Buffy said with a grimace. "I still have to deal with his jealous ranting, raving and raging."

"I'll try to help keep him in line, if you want," Iba suggested, grabbing the blanket as Buffy grabbed the picnic basket. She handed Iba his sunglasses back and he promptly put them back on.

"You can try," Buffy agreed, although she didn't think Iba would be successful on his own. However, if he teamed up with Yumichika the two of them would probably be able to keep Ikkaku off of her back. The only downside of this would be that she now possibly had three overprotective big brother types. She seemed to accumulate them, now that she thought about it.

A comfortable silence descended on the pair of Shinigami students as they walked back to Buffy's dormitory. When they arrived, Buffy tried to give the picnic basket back to Iba, but he would have none of it.

"Keep it," he said. "Have a girl's night in with Rangiku or something."

"The sake too?" Buffy asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"The sake too, but it's not gonna be a regular thing," Iba replied. Buffy carefully set the picnic basket down onto the ground before she wrapped her arms around his neck, rising onto her tiptoes to plant a quick kiss on his cheek. "What was that for? Not like I'm complainin' or nothin'."

"Being a good friend comes to mind," Buffy replied. "Thank you."

"And this has nothing to do with the food and the sake?" Iba asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Well, that might be part of it," Buffy replied, sounding a little sheepish. "After all, a fed Slayer is a happy Slayer."

"You're going to have to tell me about this Slayer thing one day," Iba remarked pointedly.

"Sure," Buffy replied. "And hopefully that day will come when we're so old, grey and forgetful that you can't remember asking me about it and I forgot about being the Slayer at all."

"Good night, Buffy," Iba said with a chuckle, stooping slightly to peck Buffy on the cheek.

"'Night," Buffy echoed, picking up the picnic basket as Iba turned to leave. With one last smile and a wave, Iba left for his dormitory and Buffy headed to her room without looking back.

If she had, she would have seen a figure jump out of the bushes and tackle Iba to the ground.

Practically skipping up to her room, Buffy burst in on Rangiku, who was sprawled out on her bed with her homework spread out around her. She looked up at Buffy, surprised to see her room mate.

"You're back kind of early," she said, sitting up. "Did everything go okay?"

"Yes and no," Buffy replied, placing the basket on the bed before flopping down next to it. "The date was fun, we kissed, but there were no sparks."

"None?" Rangiku asked. Buffy shook her head. "Harsh. What's in the basket?"

"Present from Iba," Buffy replied. "Leftovers from the picnic. We never did get into sake. He told us to have a girlie night in."

"Far be it for me to disobey an upperclassman," Rangiku said, abandoning her homework and sliding to the floor, grabbing a pillow on the way down so that she had something to sit on. Buffy joined her, placing the basket in between them. "So there were no sparks? Like, none at all?"

"Nope," Buffy replied, shaking her head for emphasis. "It kind of sucks, but at least we can stay friends."

"You know, this kind of blows any case you have against there being nothing between you and Icky," Rangiku said as she went straight for the sake.

"There's nothing between me and Ikkaku," Buffy replied quickly.

"Oh please, there's so much tension between you two that we're all expecting you to jump each other any minute," Rangiku said with a snort. "It's only a matter of time before you two realize what everyone else has figured out already."

"Brat," Buffy said, using her Slayer spend to tackle Rangiku to the floor. Shrieking and giggling, they rolled around on the floor in a tickle fight until they were to exhausted to continue, at which time they collapsed and went about making their way through the picnic basket, including the sake.

The next time Buffy saw Iba, it was the first class after the weekend. From a distance he looked normaly, but as Buffy drew closer she noticed that she was holding himself as if he were injured, and she could have sworn she saw the hint of a black eye, but unless she got the sunglasses off of him she couldn't be sure.

"Please tell me Ikkaku didn't do that," Buffy said by way of greeting. She did not want to start off her week with an ass kicking, especially when her weekend had gone so well.

"Okay, Ikkaku didn't do this," Iba replied, although he had averted his gaze, despite the fact that he was wearing his sunglasses. This definitely tipped Buffy off. She heard Ikkaku's laugh from somewhere behind her. Whirling around, she stalked over to where he was speaking to Yumichika. He stopped speaking in mid-sentence, transfixed as the tiniest person in the first class marched up to him with a homicidal expression on her face. No words were spoken before Buffy pulled back her fist and let it fly, hitting him in the jaw and knocking him to the ground. Before he could get up, Buffy placed a foot on his chest, preventing him from doing so.

"What the hell have I told you about staying out of my love life?" she growled, oblivious to the stares of her classmates. She checked him over quickly for injuries; he was breathing as if he were in pain, and she knew that she wasn't pressing down on his chest that hard. She spotted a few bruises, but no black eyes, and the way she was breathing it looked like he had bruised ribs or something.

"Buffy, it's not what it looks like," Iba said, coming up beside her and placing a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her.

"You look like you've got the crap beaten out of you and Ikkaku isn't looking much better," Buffy retorted, whirling around to glare at him. "You'd better make with the 'splainy or I'm gonna go all crazy blonde girl on his ass."

She crossed her arms and arched her eyebrow at him while tapping the foot that was not holding Ikkaku down. She knew that Ikkaku would easily be able to get up if he were so inclined, but she supposed that one glare from her would keep him on the ground as long as she needed him to be there.

"I'm waiting."

"He jumped me, we fought, we talked and things are okay now," Iba said with a shrug. "Back me up, Ikkaku."

"Yeah, that's pretty much what happened," Ikkaku agreed with a nod. "Though I did get you pretty good, huh?"

"I gave as good as I got," Iba retorted. "Could you let him up now? You're kinda attracting attention."

Buffy glanced around and, sure enough, the other people in their class had gathered around and were staring at her like she was crazy. Smiling sheepishly, she removed her foot from Ikkaku's chest and offered a hand to help him up.

"Damn right you should help me up," Ikkaku said, taking her hand and allowing her to help him up. As soon as he was on his feet, Buffy punched him, hard, on the arm. "What the hell was that for, woman?"

"I'm still mad at you," Buffy retorted with another glare. "You and I are going to have a nice, long talk about what kind of overprotecty-ness is okay and what isn't."

"Yumichika, save me!" Ikkaku said dramatically, hiding behind the shorter man.

"I told you this was going to happen," Yumichika said matter-of-factly. "You're on your own."

Ikkaku whimpered uncharacteristically as Buffy turned and stalked into the classroom, the rest of the students giving her a wide berth. Byakuya looked terrified when he saw the expression on her face, and anyone who had seen the scene before class couldn't blame him. No one wanted to be in Byakuya's shoes that day.

"Iba, can we switch partners today?" Buffy asked. He looked hesitant until Buffy's lower lip started to inch out in a pout. "Please?"

"Oh come on, you know that pout is lethal to almost any man who has to deal with it," Iba said with a groan, shaking his head. "Fine, but you're the one who has to clear it with Chiba-san."

"Fine, I'll go do that now," Buffy replied before practically skipping over to the hulking instructor. She grinned up at him, hoping that her plan would work. "Good morning, Chiba-san, how are you this morning?"

"Cut to the chase, Ayasegawa," Chiba rumbled, looking down at the tiny blonde woman standing next to him. "What do you want?"

"I was wondering if Iba and I could trade partners today," Buffy replied hopefully.

"Why the hell would you wanna do something like that?" Chiba asked, arching an eyebrow. He knew that she was friends with the bald hothead, buy he honestly didn't think she would be on par with him.

"I want a challenge," Buffy replied. Chiba's eyebrow arched higher as he crossed his arms across his chest and regarded Buffy with a sceptical look. She sighed, knowing that she would have to tell the truth if she wanted a crack at Ikkaku. "Okay, I'm pissed off and I need to let off steam. Byakuya looks like he's about to pee himself if he has to spar with me today. I think Ikkaku might be able to handle pissed off Buffy throwing around, you know?"

Chiba looked pensive for a few moments, stroking his chin as he thought. Every moment of silence that passed decreased Buffy's hope until he finally brought his gaze back to her.

"Okay, I'll let you do it for today," Chiba said carefully. "But if you get your ass handed to you, don't blame me."

"Not gonna," Buffy replied. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," Chiba said, shaking his head as Buffy skipped back to Iba with a smile on her face. "It's all settled. You get to relax with Byakuya today and I get to have a talk with Ikkaku. And oh God, the whole relaxing thing didn't sound so gay in my head. Not that being gay is a bad thing, of course."

"Buffy?" Iba said, cutting Buffy off.

"Yeah?"

"Breathe."

"Breathing, breathing," Buffy said, surveying the rest of the students. Byakuya looked more than a little relieved; he must have overheard her conversation with Chiba. Ikkaku, on the other hand, tried to hide in the corner of the room and was using Yumichika as a rather flimsy shield as she made her way over to him.

"Please, don't tell me you're scared of lil' ol' me," Buffy said, arching an eyebrow.

"You've never seen yourself in a mirror when you're pissed off," Ikkaku retorted. "I finally understand why vampires are scared shitless of you."

"I'm not going to slay you," Buffy said, rolling her eyes. "I just want to have a little chat with you. Maybe with a little fisting action." She stopped for a moment, letting the words sink in a bit before a horrified expression crossed her face. "Oh God, that didn't sound so wrong in my head."

Both Yumichika and Ikkaku started cracking up; Buffy crossed her arms and pouted. Leaning on each other, they laughed so hard and probably would have started crying if Buffy hadn't smacked them both on the back of the head.

"What the hell was that for?" Ikkaku asked with a glare, rubbing the back of his head. "I know you hit me harder than Yumichika."

"You weren't going to shut up if I didn't do anything about it," Buffy replied with a shrug. "God, when did I get so violent? You two are a bad influence on me."

"Then maybe you should stop hanging around us so much," Ikkaku retorted.

"Sorry, you guys are stuck with me," Buffy replied, hugging his arm because she knew that if she tried for more contact he might freak out a little. As it were, he was beginning to try and pull himself away, which caused Buffy to squeeze his arm harder.

"As much as I enjoy seeing Ikkaku uncomfortable, you might want to let him go," Yumichika suggested gently. "You might break his arm, and then I'll have to act as his nursemaid until he gets better."

"Come on, I'm not holding on that hard," Buffy said, looking up at Ikkaku. She released his arm quickly when she realized that his face had been contorted in pain. "Crap, I'm so sorry! I guess I still don't know my own strength."

"And another reason why I'm regretting the whole being overprotective thing," Ikkaku said with a grimace as he flexed his arm. "You can easily take care of yourself."

"Well, duh," Buffy retorted, rolling her eyes. "If it only took nearly breaking your arm to prove to you that I can take care of myself, both mentally and physically, I would have done that ages ago!"

"Does this mean I'm off the hook with the whole discussions with fists thing?" Ikkaku asked, before wrinkling his nose. "You think we're the bad influence? I'm talking like you now! Next thing you know, I'm going to be playing the dumb blonde act like a pro. But still… am I off the hook?"

"Not a chance, Ikkaku."

"Damn."

There's chapter 17, people. I am sad to say, but there isn't a whole lot more story in this fic. Five chapters, at most, and then I'll start editing/posting the sequel soon after completing this because I'm nearly 50k into the sequel now. It was over 50k, but I forgot to save and lost 2,000 words. Made me cry :'(.

Anyway, as always, I'd appreciate feedback, no matter how positive or negative it is. Thanks for reading.